Thermoelectric materials may be used to provide cooling and/or power generation according to the Peltier effect. Thermoelectric materials are discussed, for example, in the reference by Venkatasubramanian et al. entitled “Phonon-Blocking Electron-Transmitting Structures” (18th International Conference On Thermoelectrics, 1999), the disclosure of which is hereby incorporated herein in its entirety by reference.
Cooling assemblies including thermoelectric cooling elements are discussed in U.S. Pat. No. 6,424,533 to Chu et al. entitled “Thermoelectric-Enhanced Heat Spreader For Heat Generating Component Of An Electronic Device,” the disclosure of which is hereby incorporated herein in its entirety by reference. As discussed in the abstract of the Chu et al. patent, a thermal dissipation subassembly for an electronic device includes a thermal spreader configured to thermally couple to a surface of a heat generating component of the electronic device. The heat generating component, e.g., an integrated circuit chip, has a non-uniform thermal distribution across the surface thereof between at least one first region of the surface and at least one second region of the surface, with the at least one first region having a higher heat flux than the at least one second region. The subassembly further includes at least one thermoelectric device aligned to at least a portion of each first region having the higher heat flux, wherein the at least one thermoelectric device facilitates dissipation of the higher heat flux. In one embodiment, one or more thermoelectric devices are embedded within the thermal spreader and thermally isolated therefrom.